All eyes have been fixated on the national election. But in the meantime, near-freezing overnight temperatures and another storm that threatens to bring snow have added urgency to the plight of hundreds of thousands still without power.

Don’t forget the second face of this disaster: the people of no means who are locked away and suffering alone. Now that the campaigning is over, maybe we can finally turn our full attention to them.

Over the past week, we’ve seen so many dramatic images of Sandy’s wrath: boats sitting on front lawns, upside-down cars lying around like dead bugs, a fragmented home that stands like a surrealist painting, the roller coaster that collapsed into the sea.

But it’s much easier to miss the quieter and particularly harsh impact of disaster on our most vulnerable: the poor, the elderly, the disabled or sick. The damage to their lives isn’t the kind that’s covered by insurance.

This is not a contest of who has suffered or lost the most. It’s simply what years of research tell us: Economic and social inequality becomes only more pronounced in the wake of disaster.

There are countless reasons. People of means can escape in their cars and stay in a motel or with family. They have health or home­owner’s insurance. They can rebuild or relocate. That’s hard, but worse still if you have no resources to begin with.

And while so many are left cleaning up, others are still in danger. They’re not just without power; they’re without heat and have lost all their food. Thousands have been unable to buy groceries, as stores with power outages accepted only cash, rendering food stamps useless. Shelters that normally go through two or three bags of food daily are giving away dozens, digging into canned goods they’d squirreled away for Thanksgiving.

Tall buildings have trapped the elderly and disabled in dark apartments, where phones don’t work and toilets won’t flush. Many don’t feel safe in a shelter, either. They’re still fighting the cold with blankets, candles and boiling pots of water.

In one low-income area of Jersey City, an 80-year-old man who used a wheelchair was killed in a fire this week after boiling two pots of water on his stove to keep warm. He’d left them unattended after being in the dark since the hurricane struck. The blaze began moments after power was finally restored in his Greenville neighborhood, for reasons still unclear.

People who rent depend on their landlords for heat and storm repairs, with few other affordable options. And with trains, bus lines and businesses shut down, many have been left without jobs.

Hourly workers don’t have sick time or vacation days; they need every penny they get. They don’t have savings to fall back on. And pretty soon, they won’t be able to make December’s rent. Those who remain out of work can apply for unemployment insurance, but it takes weeks to get that first check.

In the interim, here’s what you can do: Give money. Knock on doors. Check on people. Just like the hardest-hit towns along our shoreline, low-income people have had their lives upended by Sandy. And the onslaught’s not over yet.